Your Wish Is My Command

One of the most precious gifts we have is free will. Because (as Madeleine Albright says:)

“What people have the capacity to choose, they have the ability to change.”

But what if choice was never even an option for you? Someone says, “Jump!” and you scream back, “How high?” The meer thought of disobeying causes debilitating pain.

Any command, be it kidnapping, arson, murdering a member of your very own family MUST be obeyed. Suicide? Out of the question. Confessing to the local authorities? Nope. Good old fashioned avoidance? Instant pain.

What would you do?

How would you live?

Me? It’s safe to say I’d spontaneously combust. (Or at least I’d like to believe that.) Dimitri from Rainy Kaye’s novel “Summoned” well…he has a whole different bucket full of ideas. The most important being…fain total ignorance.

Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally. Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker.

Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond. He just knows resisting has never ended well. When he meets Syd—assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can’t tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn’t the type to tolerate secrets.

Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl’s ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him.

Move over Aladdin…there is a new genie in town. One that shuns the stigma of bottles and the color blue for things much more hip like murder, blowing up anthropology labs, and the age old genie tradition of one-night stands. His name is Dimitri and he got his selfish ass dumped over an apple. (Yes, I said apple.)

To be perfectly blunt, I didn’t like the beginning of this novel. Yes it was quippy, and quick witted (qualities I generally drool over) but lacked a certain amount of substance. To be more specific, it was page after page of pop-up murders and sex. Not that I’m apposed to either (literarily speaking) but I tend to appreciate story building as well, and the first half of “Summoned” just didn’t have any.

Here is the thing (*stands on soap box, dares people to look away*) you CANNOT build relationships based solely on physical attraction. Starting them off that way (aka: one-night stands) are perfectly acceptable, but in order for your audience to become invested, the characters must become invested as well. Dimitri and Syd’s relationship is a weird one. What starts off as a run-of-the-mill hook-up (wow, that made me sound like a floozie) eventually turns into the most important relationship of their entire existence. (Totally ok with that.) Unfortunately, the majority of their interaction takes place in the bedroom. (Dimitri fawning over his beautiful “rockstar’s” rockin’ body.) The few times they DO delve deeper, it’s awkward conversations about fruit flies and Greek mythology. Dimitri is physically incapable of telling Syd ANYTHING about himself. Syd is a clam, mouth closed. These two things together make it almost impossible to form any sort of lasting commitment to either character. (Despite Dim’s constant internal battle.) It wasn’t until their separation that I noticed growth in the story, (and ultimately them.)

So what does all of that mean?

It means you have to dig through the dirt to find the gem. And I did. (Praise Jesus.)

Kaye did NOT win me over in the first half of this novel (obviously) but the inattention to plot detail I severely despised suddenly morphed into a rather entertaining story about a doomed genie trying desperately to change his stars. The movement of the story started to pick up. Otherwise meaningless antidotes suddenly became important plot points. Kaye’s writing got grittier, darker, and the soul of Dimitri started to peek through. THIS is when I started to enjoy what I was reading. The insta-love between the characters no longer mattered, it was how Dimitri handled it that did.

There were pages and pages of nothing but descriptive passages and internal dialogue. Dimitri bleeding, broken, but determined. And all of it acted as a catalyst to a story that became almost too twisted to follow. I might not have necessarily believed in Syd and Dim’s passion for each-other, (for the record, neither did Syd at one point) but I DID believe in Dim’s sacrifice…which was all that was evidently necessary to grab my full attention.

So now that I’ve rambled for longer than is necessary, let me lay all of the cards on the table. Despite my initial annoyance, I DID (in fact) enjoy “Summoned.” It is flawed, but eventually those flaws don’t matter. What matters is being entertained. Which I was. Also important, I didn’t feel cheated at the end. (That’s code for cliffhanger.) Even though a sequel for this novel is in the works, “Summoned” had a full bodied ending. If I was to never pick up #2 (Stifled) I wouldn’t care. (Though I’m sure that’s not what Kaye wants to hear.) I was offered up Dimitri and Syd’s story. I read it. It ended. I feel fulfilled. Anything past that point is just a bonus.

In conclusion (gosh that sounded formal) it’s only $1.99 and 237 pages long…worth the money and the time.

Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: If someone asks you to pick them up an apple at the store, for the love of all that is holy…DO IT!

About Misty

Your friendly neighborhood narcissist. I'm sarcastic, cynical and a bit cranky. I own a soap box so big that sometimes I have difficulty stepping down off of it, and I'm about 94% certain I have multiple personalities. I don't sleep enough, and I read more than any person should ever consider normal. I have anger management issues, especially when I'm stuck in traffic and I have an unhealthy obsession with my Kindle. I am a vampire lovin', zombie obsessed, book-in-hand, iPod freak. You either love me or hate me. You be the judge.

4 thoughts on “Your Wish Is My Command”

I LOVED this book! But then again, I’m married for 10 years to a man who I thought would be a one night stand, and I don’t think we really had much in common other than sex until we had kids together HAHA. So i totally got that Syd and dim both used sex to escape, and that Dim fell in love with her for so many more reasons than that 🙂 I give this book 7 stars, so between the both of us it gets 10 LOL

I really liked the book in the end, I just had a hard time believing their “love connection.” That said… not all love connections make sense I guess. Also, I was rooting for them in the end so SOMETHING in there must have stuck. 🙂

HAHA Yeah, I understand that. Some romances I relate to, some I don’t. Or sometimes when I’m reading I just don’t absorb the same things other people do from a book. Dim and Syd both used sex as an escape.; But it was more than that because otherwise Syd would have been another one night stand like the rest of Dim’s hook ups. But Syd became someone he could count on, someone who waited for him, someone to come home to. And she wasn’t just sexy, she was intelligent. She challenged Dim to be more than just a genie (before she even knew he was a genie) and I can see why that would make him fall in love with her. Everyone would love to know they mean something in this world, but no one ever made Dim feel like that something was more than fulfilling desires until Syd came along. Their relationship is complex for sure, but I love complex lol. Sorry to go all fan girl; but this is honestly the best book I have ever read. Ever!